osama bin laden

Donald Trump offered congratulations and praise to the president regarding the death of Osama Bin Laden. But Jimmy Fallon on 'Late Night' (Weeknights, 12:37AM ET on NBC) knew exactly what Trump really wanted to say about the presidential announcement cutting off the end of 'The Celebrity Apprentice' on Sunday night.

Fallon did a great impression of The Donald, and even had a backdrop similar to the one Obama used to make his announcement. Perhaps it was to emphasize the importance of the situation, and as it turns out, Trump's role in it.

"President Obama is so scared of me and so desperate for attention that he felt the need to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden right in the middle of my show," Fallon said as Trump. "Classic Obama move."

Then, on Sunday, President Obama's surprise announcement that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by U.S. special forces preempted Trump's show, 'Celebrity Apprentice.'

On 'The Daily Show' (Weeknights, 11PM ET on Comedy Central) Jon Stewart tied it all together by saying he'd watched 'Celebrity Apprentice' to see if the "absolute shellacking" of Trump "had left a visible mark."

"I'm watching this 'Apprentice' episode. ... Even though the episode had been taped prior to the Correspondents' Dinner, the demolition of Trump at the Correspondents' Dinner was so thorough I thought it might actually supersede the rules of dimensional time and space and leave a mark on future episodes of 'The Apprentice'."

Like most of us, Brian Williams was at home when the news came down the wire that Osama Bin Laden had been killed late Sunday night. He got a phone call tipping him to the news story, which was enough to get his wife up and moving, according to the story he told on 'Late Show' (Weeknights, 11:35PM ET on CBS).

By the time he got off the phone, she had the car running and aiming for the road so he could get to 30 Rock and get on top of the story right away. Now that's devotion!

David Letterman asked about speculation that the Pakistani government knew Bin Laden was in their country, and Williams said he would answer the question with one of his own.

'South Park' is never shy about taking on controversial topics. So it makes sense that the show would tackle the most divisive cultural issue of them all. We are referring, of course, to 'Jersey Shore.'

The "guido"-based reality series separates viewers into two opposing camps. People either love 'Jersey Shore' or they hate it. And 'South Park' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone made their feelings about the 'Shore' very, very clear.

Guy Faulkner's quest to hunt down Osama bin Laden is not over, he said on the 'Late Show' (weeknights, 11:35PM ET on CBS), though he was recently arrested in Pakistan during his latest attempt to find the Al Qaeda leader.

"When you get to Pakistan, how do you know what to do without getting into trouble?" David Letterman asked.

"Not a clue," he admitted. "I just knew that I had somebody I was going after." Even so, Faulkner said, "I bet my life on it that me and him were in the same mountains."

The host told him, "You're going to get killed doing this." To which Faulkner replied, "That's a matter of opinion ... It's not over with yet, Dave. This right here is only the forum to let the world know that two heavyweights are ready to fight." At that, Letterman found it hard to stifle a big grin.

Fox Newschannel has gotten its hands on some footage from the ABC fictional mini-series, The Path to 9/11, and is planning to air it tonight. The mini-series, you may remember, aired back in September and had members of the Clinton administration pretty ticked off because the script essentially blamed them for 9/11 because they failed to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Edits were made before it reached air.

But now Sean Hannity will air some of the original content on his program tonight at 9 pm. Fox got the footage by recording video of an unedited scene that producer Cyrus Nowrasteh played during a speech at California State University earlier this month. Fox will air the scene and interview Nowrasteh, with the reasoning that the American public deserves to see what the Clinton administration was opposed to.

If it were the other way around and the Bush administration had pressured ABC to change its script, do you think Hannity would still air it?

TVNewser posted what looks like a pretty awful typo on Monday's edition of CNN's The Situation Room: a picture of al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri and a cut-out in the shape of Osama bin Laden. The headline next to that picture is "Where's Obama?"

Obama? It may be a slip of the keyboard, but putting a picture of al-Qaeda and the name of the junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, together, seems like it would be sort of a Freudian slip, don't you think? For one thing, "B" and "S" aren't close to each other on a computer keyboard, and for another thing, the potential presidential candidate has been accused of being associated with radical Islamic militants. Anyway, Raw Story has the entire sequece of events, including Wolf Blitzer's on-air apology to Obama (the video of which is at Crooks and Liars). If I were Bob, I'd say something like this: "This would be something I'd expect from Fox News, not CNN," but I'm not, so I won't.

"Mess O' Potamia... Now with More Mess!": According to a recent intelligence assessment, the war in Iraq has actually heightened Islamic radicalism, thereby making the terrorism issue worse. "Remember, it's a US intelligence report... Take it with a grain of salt." I remember liking the Clinton/Lonelygirl15 joke, but I forgot what it was about because, immediately after hearing the joke, I had to explain to my oblivious roommate who Lonelygirl15 actually is (if you're clueless too, check this out).

This Wednesday, CNN is broadcasting a two-hour special hosted by Christiane Amanpour that will track Osama Bin Laden from his early days to his current status as the world's most wanted terrorist leader. Normally I don't bother with basic cable news coverage, but I like Amanpour as a reporter, and based on the clips on the Web page for In the Footsteps of Bin Laden, this looks like it might be quite informative and interesting. Amanpour and her crew traveled to ten countries on four different continents in order to follow Bin Laden's journey, and, little surprise, trying to get coverage and speak to those close to the man wasn't without its dangerous moments. The special will air August 23 at 9 pm.

I think the requirement to get your own
reality show is that you have one mildly interesting thing about you. For instance, Wafah Dofour bin Laden happens to
be Osama bin Laden's niece. Of course, she's never actually met the criminal mastermind. She's an American who was born
in California, lived in Saudi Arabia from age three to 10, and has a master's degree in law from Columbia University.
She's putting that degree to work by trying to launch a career in music and has already received headlines for her
provocative photos in GQ Magazine last December. The producers of the reality series say it'll be about her "quest
for stardom", but they also claim she'll be bridging the gap between cultures.

Wafah Dofour has actually
dropped the last name 'bin Laden', for obvious reasons. But, she also is obviously exploiting her blood relative
because, why else would this chick get her own reality show? Sure, she's hot. But that's only grounds for a guest
appearance on Fear Factor.

Ahnold
Swahzennegah can do absolutely anything and defeat absolutely anyone... in the movies, anyway. In real life, he
can't tackle an overpass without getting fifteen stitches. "I'll be bahck... to get my stitches out next
Tuesday... Till then, I'm not allowed to swim..." A picture of Arnold popped up behind Jon with the words "It
is not a tumor!" across it. I think this was the first time in a long time that I actually laughed out loud at one
of the image jokes. Still makes me giggle... hee.

It's
been four and a half years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I don't know about you, but I still get a
little emotional when I think too hard about how that morning unfolded. But, if you're interested in looking back at it
from a journalistic point of view, here is a good
place to do it.

The non-profit television library called The Television Archive has amassed Canadian and
American media coverage of that morning over a 15-minute time period from when the first plane hit, through the second
plane hitting the towers, and to the first reports of a third plane hitting the Pentagon. You can see how the news
outlets responded, who got it right, who got it first, and who, initially, got it totally wrong. For example, Charlie
Gibson of Good Morning America, remained totally calm as he reported what he was seeing. While Bryant Gumbel,
who was at The Early Show on CBS at the time, saw phantom planes after the first two crashed into the towers,
and he got all panicky on air. The entire video montage is about 30 minutes, but you may have to wait a few days to
watch it, because now the website is timing out, probably from so much traffic.